Between bouts of snow and teases of sunshine, ten people attended Sunday afternoon's family hike and geo-caching adventure.
Held at the Sabin Pond Trailhead in the Grand Traverse County Natural Education Reserve, the informal gathering was part of the ongoing Listening to the River project that launched last year. The Land Information Access Association, the Grand Traverse Conservation District and the Conservation Resource Alliance co-sponsored the event.
Funded in 2006 for three years by a National Science Foundation grant as a pilot project, the three-phase Listening to the River harnesses area teens to explore, document and create exhibits about the Grand Traverse Bay watershed.
The first phase has youth capturing the sights and sounds on multiple media: audio, video and still digital photos. Sunday's family hike and geo-caching adventure was geared to excite the community about using the high-tech equipment, bring them into the watershed and also give area coordinators practice using and teaching others about the video, audio and geo-caching devices.
"I think that it did help raise awareness for the project and it gave us a chance to do a dry run, too,” said Chris Kitzman, education coordinator for the Land Information Access Association. "We also wanted to get them out into the watershed, particularly at a time of the year they might not think about going, and introduce them to the equipment in that way. And, of course, recruit people for subsequent events.”
The Listening to the River Project has four members in the project coalition: the Land Information Access Association, Interlochen Public Radio, the Great Lakes Children's Museum and Northwestern Michigan College. By this summer, the team hopes to begin the second phase with a traveling, multi-media exhibit on the watershed to use for education and outreach. By next December, the Great Lakes Children's Museum plans to debut the beginning of a permanent, $300,000 exhibit combining information on watersheds in general with the images and sounds of the Grand Traverse Bay watershed. This interpretive exhibit is in the design stage and will be geared to elementary age children.
The final phase of the Listening to the River project will be to create a model that other communities can copy and modify for their specific needs.
"Because it's a National Science Foundation grant, obviously our overall goal is to figure this out in our community so that other communities can duplicate it,” said Kitzman.
Last fall, the project held an eight-week class that drew 12 students and an upcoming event is a three-day institute for teens scheduled for Spring Break. Mary Manner, the director of education at the Great Lakes Children's Museum, is part of the project's watershed discovery team creating the adventures for participating children. She noted that the past nine months have been a learning experience and that younger participants have increased their appreciation for the watershed by immersing themselves into it.
While the people who have joined them for hikes and recording sessions have extensive outdoor experience, both the adults and young people had to adjust their expectations.
"What we've really seen with kids has been that they go on lots of nature hikes and are out in the watershed all the time, but very rarely are they encouraged to stop and look at things and wonder about things,” said Manner. "Very rarely are they given the technology and the tools to actually record what they were interested in.”
"It was the sense that we're not your teacher, this is not a classroom,” she added. "We're going to learn from you and you're going to learn from us and we're going to learn together.”
For more information about the Listening to the River project, call 929-3696 or see their website at www.listeningtotheriver.org.